Nearly 300 Illinoisans traveled to Columbus Ohio with Joe Walsh and David From this weekend
By Mark Weyermuller -
Americans for Prosperity sponsored the Defend the American Dream Summit in Columbus, Ohio this past weekend. It was attended by 3500 conservative activists from all fifty states.
Our Illinois delegation had almost 300 attendees, sponsored by local AFP leaders David From and Andrew Nelms. Former Congressman Joe Walsh filled five bus loads of activists from his Walsh Freedom volunteers group.
The two day event included breakout sessions, training seminars, book signings, networking and speeches from Republican presidential candidates. In the candidate session, Jeb Bush, Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz addressed the enthusiastic crowd. Later in the evening, attendees met at a local bar for the "Buckeye Bash."
Ted Cruz received the largest ovations with Jeb Bush receiving what some called "polite applause." I understand Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was also invited. He had scheduling conflicts with fundraising and campaign stops in Alabama. I heard through the grapevine that Ohio Governor John Kasich was not invited nor was Donald Trump.
What is this group Americans for Prosperity? Have you heard of the Koch Brothers? AFP was founded in 2004, as a conservative political advocacy group in the United States. It got its initial funding from businessmen and philanthropist brothers David Koch and Charles Koch. It is their primary political advocacy group and also one of the most influential American conservative political advocacy organizations in the country.
I got a chance to meet David Koch and, of course, got a quick photo.
One of the many exciting events of the day was a large protest of union workers outside the convention center, numbering around 1000 people. I went outside in their midst as they appeared to be peaceful. Their main theme was "right to work is wrong." They only marched for an hour as one convention-goer quipped, "they were only paid for an hour." It is well known that it is often hard to get protesters without paying them.
The best part of the protest were these huge bobble heads similar to ones used in the Mardi Gras. They had Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, and Jeb Bush. They were very impressive and might have made nice decorations inside the venue. They also had an enormous inflatable of a "fat cat" squeezing out the "little guy." I remarked to one of the protests that it looked like "big government" going after the "little guy." The protester looked over and agreed. After all, who likes big government?
Donald Trump was not the big focus here but Hillary Clinton and her server was a huge topic. Many attendees believe she will not be the nominee and may even be indicted. I think we all may agree that the next 15 months in the presidential battle will be fun and exciting with many twists and turns. We are ready to go!
